Dennis Haarsager's rolling environmental scan for electronic media. "Somebody has to do something, and it's just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us." --Jerry Garcia "Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then." --Bob Seger

Twitter @haarsager

Sunday, 31 October 2004

Video stream: School Talk host Nadjia Varney interviews George Mason University Professors Kevin Clark and Brenda Bannan-Ritland on how they educate using modern instructional technology and instructional design. Other topics discussed include digital equity and the digital divide. Clark and Bannan-Ritland share their opinions on Community Technnology Centers. ResearchChannel link

Cognitive Brains Self Organize. Work begins next month on one of the IEEE’s most important, and most politically charged, projects, to devise an ‘intelligent’ air interface (cognitive radio), that can tap into unused television frequencies, reports Rethink Research. ¶ This will be the standard for fixed wireless systems that use cognitive radio techniques to switch automatically to a clear area of the band, and to avoid interfering with other occupying devices. ¶ The IEEE is particularly focused on systems for the underused US television spectrum between 54MHz and 862MHz, which is being vacated (reluctantly) as broadcasters move to digital. The FCC proposes to open up 300MHz of this UHF/VHF spectrum as its first major test of software defined or cognitive radios. It would permit fixed access systems transmitting up to 1W in power and portable devices up to 100mW. ¶
If successful, the FCC could push to open up other licensed bands to coexistence with unlicensed devices, and encourage other regulators round the world to follow suit. Intel and others are lobbying to increase spectrum for Wi-Fi and WiMAX in order to stimulate their own sales potential. DailyWireless link

Software-defined radio advances on several fronts. The IEEE will kick off in November work on a standard for fixed-access systems that use so-called cognitive radio techniques to flexibly tap unused swaths of spectrum. ¶ The effort marks a milestone for software-defined radio (SDR), a technology stepping forward on several fronts, although still dogged by security concerns. ¶ The IEEE 802.22 working group is expected to define the medium access control and physical-layer specifications for a so-called cognitive air interface. The technology would enable fixed, point-to-multipoint systems working in unused TV spectrum between 54 and 862 MHz to sense and tap unused spectrum in that space. ¶ The IEEE effort is targeted at a Federal Communications Commission proposal to open up 300 MHz of unused UHF/VHF spectrum as the first big test of smart, software-defined radios. ...¶ ...the 802.22-based networks, which could propagate signals up to 40 kilometers, could act as a rural complement to both 802.11 local networks and 802.16 metropolitan back-haul links. However, Schiffer of Intel Labs said it's too early to tell what the applications might be for cognitive radios in the TV spectrum. ... CommsDesign link

IEEE Taps Open TV Spectrum. Over-the-air broadcast TV channels are separated by unused frequencies. This "white space" in the broadcast spectrum varies with the channels present in a locale and creates opportunities for other applications. As a step in putting these unused channels to practical use, the IEEE has started work on a standard to enable the deployment of wireless regional area networks using the unused TV channels, while not interfering with the licensed services now operating in the TV bands. ... America's Network link

Smart Radio Vs. Idiot Box. Web services, cognitive radio, and GPS combine to extend Wi-Fi's range, as well as its bandwidth. ¶ The Promise: Wireless devices that automatically seek out the best unoccupied radio frequencies, avoiding the interference that plagues current networks. ¶ The Players: On one side, the entire wireless networking industry, led by Agere Systems and Intel. On the other, the big TV networks. ¶ The Prospects: ISPs have already shown that Web-based frequency coordination works, while vendors are well on their way to developing the cognitive radios envisioned by 802.22. But whether they meet their full potential is up to the FCC and the ITU. ¶ Radio waves behave in perverse ways. It can be difficult to get a Wi-Fi connection in a conference room from an access point (AP) only a few cubicles away, while TV seems to have no problem broadcasting soap operas and infomercials everywhere. The explanation is simple: TV got there first. By the time Wi-Fi arrived, all the best frequencies were taken, leaving unlicensed wireless networking with frequencies that the FCC described as "junk." ¶ That's changing. Thanks to smarter radios, Web services, and new FCC rules that allow frequency sharing, wireless networks will be able to use the same UHF frequencies as TV. The IEEE has already proposed a standard, 802.22, which will be similar to Wi-Fi but with a much longer range. Outside, it will be able to broadcast for miles; inside, it will be much better than Wi-Fi at passing through walls. But exactly how 802.22 devices will share the airwaves with TV remains, well, up in the air. ... InformationWeek link

Dawn Airey, managing director of Sky Networks, warns that television scheduling will become a dying art as viewers begin to create their own schedule using personal video recorders and broadband television services. ¶ “My worry is that I still don’t think the traditional broadcasting establishment fully understands the scale of the transformation that is taking place. And until they do, commercial terrestrial television as a whole may very well be sleep-walking its way to long-term oblivion,” she said in a Royal Television Society speech. ¶ It follows comments from Ofcom chairman Lord Currie at another RTS event warning that “The current order is changing - quickly - and bringing with it an unprecedented challenge for traditional linear television broadcasting” with an impending collision between broadcast and broadband delivery. ... informitv link

I've drafted an article on this general topic for the public broadcasting newspaper, Current. Watch for it in an upcoming issue. --Dennis

An ambitious European project aims to create production tools for the media industry that will allow the easy production of non-linear media genres. ¶ The 7.5 million euro project, New Media for a New Millennium (NM2), plans to allow ‘atomic’ elements of original content to be combined in different ways that are personalised and targeted for individual interest. ¶ Dr. Doug Williams from BT Exact, which provides research, development and consulting services for BT, said: “The three-year project has an ambitious aim: to identify a new mass market media genre. The new media genre will allow stories to be adapted, on the fly, for an individual viewer. We think this will be immensely attractive for viewers and for advertisers, but it means we have to think about the whole production process from concept to credits.” ... informitv link

The market for internet protocol set-top boxes will grow at least four times faster than that for cable or satellite-based boxes in the near future, according to ABI Research. ¶ With opportunities existing everywhere in the world that a telephone operator offers broadband services, the compound annual growth rate for internet protocol set-top boxes is forecast at around 60% over the next five years, compared to a more modest 13-14% for cable and satellite devices over the same period. ... informitv link

Ashley Highfield, the BBC director of new media and technology, has outlined the corporation’s vision for a broadband Britain, and called upon the collaboration and co-operation of Government and industry to avoid a digital underclass. ¶ First there was Freeview, then Freesat, now Freeband is the latest initiative to emerge from the BBC. ... informitv link

Video stream: Light-speed technology is accelerating, and even changing the way we think. So much so that you're irritated when there is a 10-second delay in downloading an Internet site even when just a few years ago you were thrilled to a same-day fax. Today's expert panelists take on technology to discuss what it is about technology that is affecting our modes of thought, how thinking has changed, and how humans can keep up with the raging pace of technological change. Joining host Robert Kuhn are geopolitical economist Francis Fukuyama; artificial intelligence expert Marvin Minsky; fuzzy logic expert Bart Kosko; planetary scientist Bruce Murray and technological innovator George Kozmetsky. ResearchChannel: Programs

Robert X. Cringely's PBS column: "...Ken Schaffer, who has homes in Russia and America and is often apart from his wife and young son, wanted to be able to watch -- over the Internet -- live Russian TV in New York and live American TV in Moscow. And soon you will be able to do so, too. ¶ Schaffer's system, called TV2ME, is for the moment strictly a point-to-point solution, so you can watch YOUR TV in another city or country, but you can't necessarily share that signal with anyone else. ... PBS link